After the Little Mermaid
by icekingsbeard
Summary: Ariel's daughter Melody looses her memory and is kidnapped. She no longer has any grasp of society outside of her kidnapper, until she goes on an adventure. Please read past the summary portion! it gets better :P The most innapropriate aspect is the violence.


**After the Little Mermaid**

After Ariel married prince, now King, Eric, they did live happily ever after for quite some time, that is not a lie. However _ever_ after did not last _forever_.

Eric and Ariel lived in the castle and were madly, passionately, and crazy in love, after 5 years of happiness they had one child named Melody. For the next twelve years they raised Melody who, unfortunately, was a curious young girl much like her mother. One day she was wandering through the town and a great fire broke loose burning street carts and civilians and Melody was never seen again, she was assumed dead.

In complete agony Ariel wrote a letter to Eric letting him know she loves him and will love him ever more, and then with waits tied around her ankles she returned to her original home, her body slowly sinking into the dark sea. She was later found dead by her father king Triton who swam to the surface to inform, accuse, and attack Eric.

After this loss Eric became an old decrepit man, his beard turned grey, his eyes drooped and he was left a shadow. He would remain trapped for he could never be happy alive and he could never leave his kingdom to die, for he had no heir. He grew depressed. This depression made every day a new weight upon his shoulders he slept, ate, drank, attended to his duties as king and stared longingly into the ocean. This unhappiness led the king to be a great leader to his people, he gave his life to the kingdom and it flourished.

**Ten Years later…**

The king sits in his polished but sad thrown, he stares at the floor, he is broken.

Ariel rots in an ocean crevasse, Triton stands above the pit. He had become as grey as his ghostly beard. Triton tosses a lump of coral into the pit he does this yearly on her birthday and her death. Coral is a customary sign of respect and appreciation amongst mermaids, Ariel received a coral when she was nine, ten, and seventeen and twenty one while she was alive, and since her death she has received twenty.

The burned corpse suspected to be melody's has been buried near the edge of the forest for she was always getting lost there. The forest gave her a sense of adventure she was not allowed to feel in her sheltered life in the kingdom.

Eric puffs a cigar between swigs of alcohol he has taken every substance the doctors had prescribes to make the pain go away. He is fifty five but he looks far older, the castle and the abuse of his vices may prove to shorten his life. It is too late for him to find another wife he and he refuses to marry anyone but Ariel. The kings mistresses have grown bored for he takes no pleasure in them, once he bed with a mistress in a time of desperation in confusion however it only fed the depression, this woman proved to be infertile. He will die soon.

Two Hundred miles away in a land full of wheat and long green grass there lived a woman of the age of twenty two. She is very beautiful although she does not remember anything before the age of twelve for she hit her head in a tragic accident she was told she was hit by a carriage. Her name was Melody, but as far as she knows her name is Suha. She was taken two Hundred miles away by her current husband, and kidnapper Alexander. He was a black smith and he is ten years older than Melody. He had been in love with her for a very long time, every time she wandered the city he would see her, dream of her he longed to love her but he knew she was royalty and that would be unacceptable. During the fire she panicked and ran into a corner where a large awning dropped down and hit her head leading her bleeding from the temple and nose and unconscious. So he saved her stole her and loved her. He named his prize Suha after a woman he met in his travels to the kingdom; he had always liked the name and felt it suited her.

It was seven in the morning and the dew was beginning to melt off of the long bent grass that surrounded their home, Melody no Suha, arose from her slumber to find the bed empty and she was glad. She grabbed her coat from a hook, it was old and dirty but it kept her warm and they were poor. Suha had remained curious despite the events that took place so whenever she found herself alone she would explore. She had long dark brown hair that was very dirty, and she wore rotted miner pants held up by suspenders, with thick wool socks and holey shoes. She parted the tall grass as she walked away from her lonely little home. It was just her and Alexander that lived there and he would leave for a nearby town for supplies and work, he remained a blacksmith like he was in the city but kept Suha hidden away from society in a small house very far away from town.

He loved the way her eyes could cut through diamond and that her hair was black as night. Her skin was soft like feathers and when she slept she breathed so lightly he had to strain his ears to hear her. She was strong but fragile she was an impossible thing and he must keep her hidden for she is desirable… and alexander knows she does not love him and that she may stray.

It was a cold morning, she liked cold mornings they made the air feel clean. Cleanliness was something she did not see much of married to a blacksmith. Ahead of her is miles of long grass filled with sleeping rabbits and foxes and on the horizon there were tall mountains hidden behind mist and fog but she knew they were there, she set out towards them.

The town was enveloped in thick smog that infected the lungs and covered the pedestrians with soot. Alexander hated poor towns he missed the kingdom with its clean cobblestone streets but he would never dare returning. He had a small shop on the edge of town it was uninteresting and the color of a biscuit. Inside was dark and lining the walls were large shining swords with intricate designs along the blades. A man walked in, he had clearly traveled from far away and had white hair brushed back away from his face and tucked into a small pony tail. He had a pretentious feel to him. Alexander looked up from an old blade he was polishing his eyes a thick Honey. Alexander was a skinny man he had several burns on his callused hands and his skin was a dark coarse olive, his hair was filthy soot brown and he had some deep scars lining his jaw on the right side in shapes caused by a heavily swung beer bottle.

"How can I help you" he asked grudgingly.

The pretentious man sniffed and stuck his large arched nose into the air, "I am here on a quest for our lord and king he is in need of a new blacksmith for the royal blacksmith has just died, I have traveled very far it appears…" he paused to glance around disgustedly. He cleared his throat and continued "It appears that _you _sir are the only blacksmith this town has to offer"

This did not faze him many people of stature have come to him to renew engravings, "guns have become more _popular _the sword is now nothing more than an old man's accessory."

The man furrowed his eye brows and scoffed offended "don't think I will not take my business elsewhere"

Alexander smugly grinned from the corner of his mouth on the left side of his face, "and where might that be" he asked not expecting an answer.

"I simply do not understand why you are being so rude" he puffed exasperated "King Eric has done more for you then you will _ever _know!"

His heart stopped. Sweat crept down his brow. Time stopped.

His face must have shown his complete and utter surprise because the pretentious man puffed up his chest and looked quite pleased with himself.

"I cannot help you here" Alexander uttered quietly.

"You will refuse the order of a king!? I can have you arrested" which is something he would very much like to do at this point.

Alexander looked down at the sword he was crafting and spoke, almost under his breath, for he knew this was true "what. Can. I. Do. For. You." He paused. "Good Sir." He said through gritted teeth.

"Now that is better! I have a number of items I would like engraved and I can imagine it will take quite some time…"

Suha was perched on one of the lower levels of the larger mountain; she looked like a beautiful animal, her wild black hair whipped around her face in the wind and her cracked hands bled from the small jagged rocks that had cut into them. She starred out at the sky the large beautiful clouds marched by full of confidence and she admired him. She wanted to be a cloud. The cold sediment beneath her torn hands was steady and serene. She wanted to be sand. The small animals leapt into their holes safe and pure. She wanted to be rodent. The confident clouds rolled closer bringing with them impressive winds. She stood up concerned. On her mountain she no longer felt strong for the weather was questioning her presence. She began down the mountain. It took her four hours to climb down the mountain, an hour and a half less than it took her to climb it. As her feet landed in the grass she ran for her small home, no that implies a feeling of belonging, her residence. However as she ran toward her house she also ran towards the storm, it took her at least an hour and a half to make it across the plain the first time could she make it back before the rain started to fall and the lighting started to strike? She built up a steady run for she was strong and capable and she ran for about 20 minutes until she needed to rest. The weather doth protest. She crouched sweating panting, but then she heard a crash of lightening and knew she must continue, she was roughly a fifteen minutes jog away, she picked up speed again. Her head began to ache as though it were sucking in air from her ears, and she grew dizzy, she had not brought any food or water to drink that day and the wind picked up. She began to run in quick jagged lines as wind blew hair in her faces and rain started to pound into her. Her residence began to disappear in the distance growing greyer and foggy and soon she had gotten lost in the rain. She fell cold and broken, now she felt like a rodent, lost and torn from its home.

Alexander had planned to stay in the town later that evening to work on the swords, he wanted them polished and perfect and out of his life as quickly as possible, but he had felt the storm coming and decided he should head home before he got caught in it.

Rain pummeled Suha's face reddening her cheeks and lips, and whitening her hands. However she did not protest when the wind tried to bury her and the rain attempted to smother her because she felt as though that was "home".

Suha did not realize that family does not pummel you and smother you and abuse you, she thought the rain was treating her with affection for her husband showed his love in similar ways. Neglecting, abusing, and hurting.

Suha was near free when the clouds reached out to her and scraped her up from the mud and whisked her away.

Hot boiled water sizzled against her skin steaming, imprinting strange little red messages in her deadly pale skin. She opened her inhumanly blue eyes to see a dark figure with a bucket. Alexander. He had boiled rain water and threw it on her, stinging her delicate skin, in an attempt to "revive" her.

Angry and "emotional" Alexander screamed at her

"I told you not to leave the house! You could have been lost! Or seen!"

As if Suha were a piece of his property he was rather invested in.

"I swear to god! If you had been seen by-" he stopped himself, unable to finish his sentence. He thought of the man from earlier he struck her across her left cheek the smack synchronized with a protesting rumble of thunder. Suha wondered why he didn't want people to see her, or the purple and red piece of work he had so masterfully crafted on her young face. He seemed so proud of it.

Later that night they retired to their lumpy bed, alexander slept as the outer spoon resting his hand on Suha's throat as an act of affection and dominance, but she didn't know the difference.

**Chapter One**

Sterile, the chair beneath him, the air around him, the faces that great him, cleaned out of boredom and lack of purpose. He longed to reach out and touch the faces that haunt his soul but those were rotted bruised and absent.

_Such beautiful women they were, they are._ He thought to himself. _No matter what happens their beauty will not vanish, not from my heart, not from my mind._ He might have cried if his emotions had not been drained from him as his very blood had been.

He cracked his old shoulders and straightened up in his chair; properly know as throne but when he gazed upon it himself he saw nothing but a chair. A throne belongs to a king, a man with a grand life close to god, but he was not that man so this _chair _beneath him was no throne. He stood up, knee's popping, eyes drifting; his large cloak dragged behind him as he made his way to the large old doors and escaped into the courtyard. The sun was setting and dust could be seen dancing under certain bands of sunlight.

Early that day he had been confronted by his royal advisors.

"Sir, your highness we have urgent matters to discuss" stated his royal Advisor with false confidence.

"Being?" the kings deep old voice cracked from his throat.

"It is said that the king must have an heir to the throne in the event" there was a pause "of his, ever so unfortunate, passing" his advisor said nervously. He was a small nervous man but he gave valid reasonable advice. They did not often quarrel but the king was extremely unhappy with this topic of conversation, so he said nothing.

After a long pause his advisor said "It is unlikely that we will find her."

_It is unlikely that we will find her_

Those words echoed in the king's head as he stared at the spiraling cesspools of dust.

He sighed a large aching sigh. The royal advisor had been right on this matter but the king did not want to admit it.

"How to solve the unsolvable" he croaked to himself as the sky transformed into a salmon pink.

The heavy swords wrapped in thick burlap thudded onto the table before him. The snowy haired man undid the twine with one long fingered hand and picked up the sword inside. He ran his judgmental finger across the top of the blade where the elaborate spirals had been renewed and polished. After much scrutiny the man distastefully sighed

"I don't see anything wrong with them. As much as it pains me you have done a very good job"

Alexander smiled smugly.

The white haired man paused, and looked alexander up and down which made him uncomfortable. Then he exited the shop. Alexander could see the man discussing something with another man outside, and gesturing to the swords. After much deliberation he returned, sighed once more and said

"I would like to invite you under the rule of King Eric to be the permanent blacksmith for the kingdom"

Alexander's heart stopped, he felt nauseous and suddenly religious. He would pray to any god that would listen if they would spare him and save him from this nightmare. He felt dizzy and frustrated.

He pulled himself together and sputtered through nervous lips "no. I don't want-"

He stopped himself being rude would only enrage the man. "No thank you sir" he finally responded.

The snowy haired man's eyes widened in surprise "I do not understand your answer, by the look of your situation" he glanced at the filthy shop "the mere thought of the money were offering." He stopped and scrutinized alexander.

_Oh no _Alexander thought_ he knows, and if he doesn't he's suspicious. I need to. I should… _

Alexander straightened up and replied "I will accept your kind offer".

_We'll run for it. I'll arrange a meeting place and never show up and I'll take Suha and leave farther west. _Alexander continued in his own mind.

"Now that is better, I'll arrange for a carriage to come to your home and collect your belongings"

"Oh. Uh that is not necessary-" alexander started

"Nonsense! Your one of the king's men now you shall receive the king's treatment. Our king is fair and generous"

"Oh well. I can't leave my… brother" Alexander lied.

"Oh you have relatives! I didn't think, well there is a home for whomever you need to take care of." The white haired man retorted.

That night alexander raced home and slammed open the cottage door startling Suha. She had been sitting at the kitchen table cutting a relatively old apple. Alexander just stared at her, looking her up and down, Suha wondered what she had done. Alexander took two quick steps over to her and firmly grasped her by the chin and tilted her head side to side.

"Pull your hair back" he ordered.

She did.

He nodded and swiped the apple covered knife from the table and grabbed Suha's hair from where she had been holding it. She let out a short scream as he raised the knife to her but she stopped knowing it would be worse if she continued. As Alexander sawed at her thick oily locks bits of dirt, hair, and apple juice dropped to the floor. Lines of fresh tears cut through the layer of dirt that clung to Suha's face. Alexander had done far worse, well more painful, things to her but the shock of losing a part of herself, was too much to handle. She had never cut her hair and she thought that would be the one thing she would always have. But Alexander took everything.

The carriage was scheduled to come in several hours and alexander busied himself with transforming Suha into what would appear to be a rather feminine man. Suha had always worn Alexander's old clothes and she had the grace of a wild animal rather than that of a lost princess but she had such striking features. If only he could alter the elegant contours of her face he thought to himself. Alexander paced back and forth occasionally looking at Suha and then back to the floor.

A sharp wind cut through the thin walls of their house which prompted Suha to turn towards the small fire flickering in the furnace. She warmed her worn hands by the fire, the reddish orange glow reflecting on her cheeks, she looked up at Alexander, and immediately regretted it. A spark had been lit behind his eyes and he looked utterly mad.

She opened her mouth as if to speak but Alexander rushed over to the furnace and grabbed a pair of crusty tongs lying on the table next to it. Then he ran outside and grabbed a palm sized rock and tossed it into the furnace. It sat amidst the piles of ash, damp soil sizzling off of it until it was warmed to the core. After several minutes Alexander used the tongs to retrieve it from the gaping mouth of the furnace. He then grabbed Suha's face with his strong hand, she tried to squirm away but she had no chance. He pushed her head back so that she sat up straight in her chair and he turned her face to the side, so that she could only stare into the fire. He held the burning rock in the tongs and artfully selected where it should melt her innocent flesh, he decided that it should be placed at the corner of her eye and then dragged down her cheek bone because that was her most feminine feature. Suha attempted to look up at him from the corner of her eye shaking her head and pleading in a series of helpless groans but he directed her face to the red hot unforgiving fire and slowly began to place it on her skin.

It nearly touched her fine flesh as a rough knock pounded at their door; they both jumped causing Alexander to drop the hot stone which bounced off of her face and into her lap burning her thighs. She tried to scream but alexander shifted his hand to cover her mouth, causing the scream to gurgle in her throat and die. He pulled her out of her seat by the jaw and stood her up straight, letting the rock hit the floor.

He stared into her eyes and gestured to her with the tongs, "remember, You Are A Man" he growled.

She chocked back her tears and nodded. The stone had left a small burn under her eye and a large sweltering blister between her legs.

Alexander went to open the door. It was the white haired man "ah the carriage is here" alexander called to her falsely. Suha did not know a whole lot about how the world worked but when she looked out the door to see a magnificent royal carriage she knew that this was the start of a completely different life.


End file.
